A bridge doesn't have to fail catastrophically to be dangerous. There are two bridges in Buffalo that periodically drop chunks of concrete onto the road below. They currently have nets hanging below them to catch anything that falls and are scheduled for replacement.
There are also other problems than bridges -- bridges are just the most spectacular. Every city in the US has outdated or overloaded water, sewage, electrical service, phone lines, etc. Unfortunately, when the budget crunch comes, "infrastructure maintenance and repair" is very easy to cut since it's not crucial and can be taken care of "next year," but "next year" never comes. Suddenly, people have sewage backing up into their basements every rainstorm, and you've got an acute problem that's probably more severe than it would have been if the system had been better maintained.
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